Public 'at risk' from jail releases

The public is being put at risk from drug addicts and mentally ill offenders released from prison without treatment, doctors leaders have warned.

A year of "political failure" has left people vulnerable to the effects of an inadequate system, they said.

Prison doctors who are members of the British Medical Association (BMA) called for a raft of new measures to tackle the growing problems.

They said 2007 had been a year of continuous crisis for the English and Welsh system, with many prisons "swamped by illegal narcotics".

Overcrowding in prisons led to the Government to introduce a range of measures this year, including the early release of more than 11,000 inmates. Temporary accommodation, such as police cells, were also used throughout the year to provide extra capacity.

In early December, Justice Secretary Jack Straw announced that three "super-prisons" each housing about 2,500 offenders would be built. But the BMA said the Government was not doing and that a review of the prison system by Labour peer Lord Carter of Coles had neglected prison health and did not address the UK's high rates of re-offending.

Dr Redmond Walsh, a prison doctor in London and member of the BMA's Civil and Public Services Committee, said: "Throughout the year many prison healthcare facilities, rehabilitation programmes and post-release monitoring services have been under enormous pressure from an influx of inmates with serious behavioural-related conditions.

"An estimated two thirds of prisoners who enter custody are drug dependent and seven out of 10 have one or more psychological disorders."

The BMA called for a formal inquiry into the "escalating drugs problem" and a national strategy to reduce the availability of drugs in prisons. It said post-monitoring services should be improved, with consideration of whether community orders should be used to make sure prisoners visit drug services after release.